City of Bones Book Summary

City of Bones – Seeing Beyond the World

Brief Summary:

“City of Bones” is a fantasy novel spectacularly written by Cassandra Clare, which talks about a girl (Clary) adept at seeing beyond worldly humans. She is helped by her friends and ultimately meets a group of Shadow Hunters, who are on a mission to remove evil shadows or spirits from the world. Clary is unaware of her remarkable powers, which start getting activated when her mother goes missing. 

Analyzing Core Events:

Characters of the Fantasy:

As “The City of Bones” is set in a fantasy world, it talks about a constant tussle between shadow hunters and demons. In fact, Clary is the main character who has supernatural powers, which are realized at a later stage. When she returns home, Clary finds her mother Jocelyn gone missing. In the wake of finding her, Clary meets Jace who brings her to an institute. There she is introduced to Isabelle, Alec, and Hodge. They are team members of Shadow Hunters, which was headed by Valentine. Some of the other characters are Luke (Werewolf) who attacks Valentine’s assistants, Madame Dorothea, and Magnus Bane. 

Hallucination or Psychic Kick:

Clary is stunned by a grave incident where she witnesses two people abducting a guy and murdering him. This occurred when she went to a Pandemonium Club with Simon Lewis.  Clary asked Simon to rush and get help. He returns with a bouncer from the club’s security and realizes that Clary is alone. At this point, Clary is amazed because her friend Simon cannot see other people she has seen. This seems to be a psychic kick for her to start realizing her powers, highlighting that she can see people from other worlds that normal people cannot see. From there on, she starts realizing that something is different with her and she has been bestowed with special powers.  

Insight into the Past of Clary’s Mother:

Clary’s mother Jocelyn has been a Shadow Hunter in the past, who left the shadow world for the sake of protecting Clary. She was aware of the dangers in that world and wanted to guard her daughter from Valentine. Indeed, he was the head of Shadow Hunters and her estranged husband. This signifies that Clary got her supernatural powers from Jocelyn and Valentine. Besides this, Jocelyn hides the fact from Clary that Valentine is her father, whom she gets to know on her own. Along with this, Jocelyn took help from Magnus Bane to cast a spell on Clary, so that she may not see the Shadow Hunter world. But, destiny had other plans as the spell kept on fading with time and Clary started realizing her powers. 

Hunt for Mortal Cup

The story revolves around the zest to find the Mortal Cup and the fight to claim holds the center stage. Previously, Jocelyn (Clary’s mother) had escaped with the Mortal Cup and hid it in one of the Tarot Cards of Madame Dorthea. She had even taken the help of a High Warlock to cast a spell on Clary. But, the spell starts to fade away with time and Clary starts realizing her powers. In this wake, it is discovered that only Clary can deduce the cup. Later, she was able to retrieve the cup that was handed to Hodge and later to the Valentine. After receiving the cup, it was discovered that Jace was his son. This dashed the hopes of Jace and Clary to be in a romantic relationship as they were siblings. When Jace denies returning to his home country with Valentine, he leaves the place through a portal. While going away, Valentine smashed the Mortal Cup behind him.